Clever Litle Human
by Todd's Pet
Summary: A sort of AU story with Steve and Vegas Todd prisoners together, where an insignificant human female discovers she can do something very special. Couldn't be bothered uploading chapters separately, but they're very short.


Clever Little Human

Chapter 1

Rose has been assigned to watch him constantly, to record everything he says and does, in the hope of understanding more about these wraith. She knows she's supposed to be searching for weaknesses they can exploit, but she's seeing so much more in this complex and intelligent creature. She can't help thinking that, if he is representative of his species, then it's nothing special to work out that wraith feel, like any human does – they feel pain, they feel loneliness.

Major Sheppard had named the wraith Todd many months ago when he had first been captured. She remembers the wraith had been an impressive sight then; straight-backed and well over six feet tall with the imposing bearing and charisma of one used to leadership.

But now, starving, exhausted, bedraggled, and losing his mind from prolonged hunger and captivity, he looks a sorry sight in the drab grey of the regulation prisoners' jumpsuit they make him wear. She knows they've tortured him, no matter how much they deny it and call it simply "questioning". She's thankful they don't make her watch that.

But still, every day that she watches this once proud and powerful alien descend into madness chips away at her own sanity. She cannot see how much more they think they can get from him, but even the dull-minded military commanders of this base can see that she's developed some kind of bond with him and they insist that she continues.

Nevertheless, as far as she's concerned this is now a futile exercise in cruelty and day by day she feels more and more ashamed of her own kind. She's struggled with this for days now and, while she has to admit she will miss him, it's just too painful to watch him deteriorate like this any longer. She decides that today is the day she's going to ask to be re-assigned.

But when she arrives at the room that houses the wraith in his Perspex cage, there is a second cage, holding another prisoner: a wraith, like Todd, but they couldn't possibly be more different.

Chapter 2

They are quite a sight, the two wraith, side-by-side in their respective glass cages, illustrating that the species are as diverse in their appearance as humans are.

Rose knows that, in spite of his ingrained military instincts, even Sheppard now feels some pity for Todd. But for some reason she can't yet fathom, he seems to intensely dislike the new wraith. He contemptuously names him Steve, and she wonders if Sheppard has any idea how ironic it is that he should give such a commonplace name to someone as uncommonly beautiful and graceful as this alien.

Steve was certainly enough of a challenge to make her change her mind about requesting a re-assignment. She's been watching him all days now as he struts arrogantly back and forward in his cage, every now and then turning to glare at them as if he could drag the life force from them with his eyes, simply by the force of his stare. She sometimes wonders if he can, so difficult is it for her to tear her eyes away from his.

He still wears his own uniform having refused point blank to put on a garment that he clearly deems to be beneath him. Sheppard has already tried several times in the last two days to get him to cooperate.

"You'll be more comfortable," Sheppard had said, holding out the offending item.

"I doubt that very much," the wraith had replied, looking at the garment and turning up his nose as if it were a rotting rat that Sheppard held out to him.

"I could stun you and do it while you're unconscious," Sheppard had goaded him.

"And who would do the deed, Major Sheppard?" Steve had sneered right back. "You?" The wraith had turned his head quite deliberately then and looked directly at Rose. "I might consider it if SHE undressed me..."

Rose had blushed scarlet, even though she tried so hard not to, and the way Steve had grinned at her when she did only made her blush all the more.

And so he paces, back and forward, back and forward, within the confines of his glass cage. His long black leather coat sways around his slender body with every turn and, as she watches him, she can't help thinking she's glad he refused to wear the dreadful jumpsuit; although she suspects that this strangely alluring alien could make even that look good.

Chapter 3

"Why do you look so sad?" Steve asks Rose as she sits filling in her observational reposts, every now and then pushing her specs back up her nose.

"Do I look sad?" she answers his question with one of her own before putting her laptop on the bench, standing up and walking over to face him. Somehow she never feels as intimidated by these wraith as she's noticed all her colleagues seem to be. She wonders if she'd be so bold without the glass between them.

"Yes, you do… especially when you look at him." Steve nods towards the adjoining glass cage, where his comrade sits, muttering quietly.

Rose walks over to Todd's cage and places her palm flat against the glass. Todd looks up and, smiling and tilting his head to one side, he says wistfully, "Sad little human…"

"We can sense your emotions, you know," Steve says. There's a teasing tone to his voice that rankles Rose for some strange reason.

She turns away from Todd and looks at Steve. "Please don't mock me," she says, not sure whether she's pleading or demanding.

"Don't mock… little human is sad for us…" Todd says.

Steve looks over to Todd and frowns, standing with his hands on his hips. "He's lost his mind," he says dismissively.

"Has he?" Rose says, turning back to Todd, her palm still against the glass. "Sometimes I think he talks more sense than all of us."

Todd holds her gaze as he slowly gets up from his bunk and walks across to the wall of his cage where she stands. There, he places his palm against Rose's, only an inch of Perspex between them, and says, "No weeping, little human; work to be done."

Rose and Todd give each other a melancholy smile and tilt their heads in unison, as if somehow their thoughts are in synchrony.

Steve turns away and impatiently resumes his pacing. "He's insane!"

"Youngling's bluster locks in fear," Todd says quietly, as if he were speaking privately with Rose. "Sad little human finds the key."

Steve glares at Todd as he turns in his pacing and Rose looks across at him. "Don't worry," she says, smiling wryly, "I reckon you're not quite a 'youngling'. But your secret's safe with me anyway."

"I am not afraid!" Steve growls.

"Of course not, you're a wraith," Rose replies.

This time Steve is the one to tilt his head at her. He watches her, still standing with her palm against Todd's, the two of them looking at each other as if they were about to embrace, the bond between them obvious. Reluctantly, Steve says, "I apologise for mocking you."

Without taking her eyes away from Todd's she says, "Apology accepted."

Immediately Todd grins and gives a short, snorting laugh. He taps the glass with a long, ragged green fingernail. "Youngling's key," he says before he turns and walks back to his bunk.

Chapter 4

Todd has been lying on his bunk with his eyes closed for several minutes and Steve is sitting sulking in a corner with his eyes closed, so still he could be meditating. Rose figures she may as well take a break. She stands up and stretches, rubbing the small of her back with her hands, then turns and heads toward the door.

"Tired of watching me?" Steve says suddenly, startling her.

"I don't think your ego needs me to answer that," Rose replies sharply as she turns back to face him. She takes her specs off and rubs the bridge of her nose before replacing them and saying, "But I am tired and I need to sleep."

"What if I don't want you to go?"

Rose takes an involuntary sharp intake of breath. Did he just say what she thought he said? She reminds herself that this one, unlike Todd even in the early days, has no time for humans other than as food. What kind of egotistical game is he playing with her now? She hopes that he hadn't noticed her reaction to his words and tries to cover it with sarcasm.

"Are you afraid of being left alone with him?" She nods toward the sleeping Todd. "There's an inch-thick Perspex wall between you, so you're perfectly safe, he can't feed on you."

Steve holds her gaze with his deep amber eyes and, for a fleeting moment only, their penetrating depths soften and melt, drawing her into them. "Perhaps I just need company," he says softly.

"Perhaps you do," Rose says carefully, "But I doubt very much you want human company." She nods at Todd. "He'll wake up soon."

Steve walks up to the wall of his cage, places his hand flat on the glass in front of him, and says, "Even a wraith needs physical contact now and then."

She flicks her eyes to his hand and stares at the feeding organ she can see clearly up against the glass.

"Are you afraid I might suck the life force through your hand even through this glass?" he asks, echoing her previously sarcastic tone.

"You've seen me do that often enough with Todd, so you know I'm not afraid, but you won't feel any contact through glass," she tells him, knowing that this creature is worming his way under her skin, regardless of the Perspex that separates them.

"There's no reason for you not to, then," he says. His voice takes on a low, quiet tone that feels uncomfortably intimate to Rose.

Determined not to show any fear to this wraith, she walks over to him. Slowly, uncertainly, she raises her hand and places it on the glass, her palm and fingers covering his. Involuntarily, she gasps. In spite of the thick Perspex she can feel the heat of his hand against hers. No, she realises, not just the heat but the texture, as if the Perspex simply wasn't there. Her instinct is to pull away, but she doesn't.

"How are you doing that?" she demands, "I don't feel anything like this with Todd."

"Perhaps you're not on his wavelength," Steve suggests. Rose looks at him suspiciously. The way he looks at her makes her blush and she feels uncomfortable. She pulls her hand away from the glass. Instantly she has an inexplicable sense of loss and regrets it.

From where he lies on his bunk, Todd booms out, "Defences crumbling! Walls falling!"

He chuckles quietly to himself when Rose immediately leaves the room and Steve walks off to the far corner of his cage to sit and sulk.

Chapter 5

"It's just too good an opportunity to miss," Sheppard insists.

"I don't think either of them would see it as an 'opportunity', Major Sheppard," Rose says scathingly.

"The Hoffan virus is the first real breakthrough we've had in this war against the wraith," Sheppard pushes.

"And if we are at war with them, then they are prisoners of war and, as such, it's not ethically correct for us to use them as guinea pigs to test potentially lethal biological weapons." Rose's voice reaches a crescendo, her sense of justice clearly riled.

"They're going to die anyway, so we might as well use them while we can." Sheppard is equally riled and a muscle tics away in his jaw.

"Use them? They're intelligent, sentient beings, for God's sake! We can't USE them for anything!" Rose leans aggressively across the table toward Sheppard.

"Why the hell not?" Sheppard challenges her. "I've already got permission from HQ so it's already w-a-a-a-y over your head. We go ahead with the experiment and move one of them to Hoff." Sheppard pauses for effect to study Rose's reaction. He notices that she, too, has a muscle tic in her jaw and, with a strange sense of sadistic satisfaction, he adds, "We'll test it on Steve. Today."

"Why Steve?" Rose asks. "I would have thought that Todd was more in need of a decent meal." She hesitates, realising what she's said when the others all turn and look at her. "He's gone much longer without feeding," she qualifies, "so he's weaker and likely to be easier to transport. Steve would use up more guard power."

"Nice try," Sheppard sneers. "But Todd is too delirious to give us anything useful anymore. We can use the prospect of a..." he hesitates and looks at Rose disparagingly, "... a decent meal to get some intel out of the other one."

"So, if you've already decided that Todd is of no further use, what do you plan on doing with him?" Rose demands, her sense of injustice over-riding any intimidation she may feel about further challenging Sheppard. "Just let him slowly starve to death in that glass cage in front of Steve?"

Sheppard shrugs. "Well, if he has to watch one of his own die the same way he's going to go, then maybe he'll realise we mean business and start cooperating."

"And even if he does," Rose objects, not even trying to hide her outrage at what he'd just said, "Would you feed him?" Sheppard shrugs again but no one says anything. "That's what I thought." Rose throws the words at the assembled crew like an accusation, pushes her specs hard up against the bridge of her nose and then stomps out of the room.

Chapter 6

Rose looks at the shackles Sheppard holds out to her in pretty much the same way as Steve had regarded the jumpsuit when he'd held it out to him. She flicks her horrified gaze back up to Sheppard.

"You were the one who didn't want us to stun him. If you're so concerned about the damage it could do to him in his weakened state, then you can do the deed," Sheppard tells her. "Unless, of course, you've changed your mind about stunning him not being worth the risk."

Sheppard has told Steve he'll let him feed in exchange for information but that, to do so, they have to take him to Hoff where someone has volunteered. He had given Steve two options – stunned unconscious, or conscious and shackled.

Steve had sensed Rose's trepidation, knowing that she was aware that his hunger did not only mean that he could not fully heal himself of the bullet wounds he took on his capture, but also that stunning him in this condition was risky.

He had opted for conscious but nevertheless can't help himself from goading Sheppard with, "If you think your soldiers are brave enough to try, that is."

Rose snatches the shackles from Sheppard and marches up to Steve, snapping, "You just can't help yourself, can you? I'm trying to keep you alive here! Stop fighting me every inch of the way!"

Rose knows that Sheppard is as yet unaware of what she recently found out: that wraith are ruled by females and that, in the face of an angry and assertive female who is clearly not afraid of him - even if she is human - Steve would have to fight the instinct to back down. She hides a self-satisfied smile as, slightly subdued, Steve retreats into a sulk.

Rose likewise backs down and when she speaks to Steve again, her voice is soft and kind. "I apologise for having to do this, but it seems I have no real option," she tells him, holding out the shackles. "I have to come in there with you. Will you promise not to try to feed on me?"

Sheppard opens his mouth to protest and she snaps her head around to glare at him. "He's hungry, not stupid!"

Steve listens to her almost growl the words and senses her outrage. He realises she is genuinely trying to help him and, while it goes against the grain for him to trust anyone, let alone a human, he decides he's in a situation that gives him no other option.

"I give you my word," he concedes.

Rose tells the guards to open up.

"You're just going to take his word for it?" Sheppard protests.

"I'd take his word over yours any day," Rose snaps.

Steve gives Sheppard a self-satisfied grin and Rose smiles, allowing Steve that small victory over him.

Sheppard nods to the guards and, in retaliation for Steve's conceit, he orders, "They go in first."

"Damned testosterone fuelled posturing is the same in any species," Rose mutters as the guards push past her.

Chapter 7

An almost invisible panel in one wall of the Perspex cage slides aside and four armed guards immediately surround Steve with their guns mere inches from his head.

Sheppard and the guards stand and watch with disbelieving expressions as Rose squares her shoulders, pushes her specs up her nose and then walks straight up to Steve and deliberately stands well within his arms' length.

"If I don't do this they'll stun you. You're weak and wounded and I'm worried what that might do to you," she reiterates. "I don't want to do this either, but they've given me no other option. Will you allow me to…?" She holds the shackles uncertainly.

Steve says nothing but slowly extends both his arms, palms downwards, towards her. An expression of obvious embarrassment and distaste on her face, she buckles on the wrist cuffs and then moves in closer with the belt. Her face comes within an inch of his and he holds her gaze without wavering.

"I'm sorry," she tells him quietly as the guards move back a little out of the way.

"What for?" he asks.

"For the way you're being treated," Rose replies. "Not all human beings are like this."

"Aren't they?" he asks. He bends slightly so his lips are close to her ear and whispers, "Or perhaps it is simply that you are not as human as you think you are."

"From anyone else I'd take that as an insult."

Steve speaks too quietly for anyone but her to hear. "Why did you come in here with a hungry wraith?"

"Because you gave me your word."

"There, you see – it was not an insult."

Rose finishes buckling the shackles on him and lays her hand on his. "I'm coming with you," she tells him.

Quietly again, so no one else can hear him, he says, "Thank you."

The second she steps out of the cage with Steve just behind her, the four guards heft their guns up and point them at his head again.

Rose glowers at Sheppard and retorts, "Do you have to do that? What exactly do you expect him to be able to do in those?" she points impatiently to the shackles.

"Just a precaution," Sheppard replies. "You can never be too careful with these green guys."

"Yeah right, especially when they're weak from hunger," Rose snaps. When Sheppard merely shrugs, she makes a "humph" noise and walks on ahead. Steve follows her, giving Sheppard a withering look as he passes.

They're almost out of range when they hear Todd's deep, gravely voice booming out, "It feeds upon itself and grows!"

Rose stops in her tracks and walks back to Todd's cage. Looking at him softly, she asks him, "What do you mean, Todd?"

"Freely given, doesn't die."

"What doesn't?"

"The key doesn't."

Impatiently, Sheppard puts his hand on her shoulder and says, "He hasn't made any sense for weeks. Come on, we're wasting time."

Chapter 8

Rose has a very bad feeling about this. Something is very wrong but she can't put her finger on what.

Sheppard had earlier promised her that all this Hoffan virus would do is prevent Steve from feeding on the volunteer.

"It'll just make him taste bad, that's all," Sheppard had told her impatiently. "It's not poison, it won't kill your precious wraith."

"And how do you know that?" Rose had challenged. "Besides, if you were starving to death you'd still eat, no matter how bad it tasted."

"It's more complicated than just a bad taste," Dr Beckett had added. "We think it blocks the feeding process in some way, but the Major is right – it won't kill him."

"You THINK? Is that meant to be reassuring, Doctor?" Rose had demanded. "Given that you'll still let him starve to death anyway."

Dr Beckett looked genuinely torn when he answered, "I know you want to study them for as long as you can, but just exactly how do you propose that we feed them, lassie?"

And so here she stands, watching the Hoff citizen walk hesitantly up to the metal bars of the cage they now hold Steve in. She doesn't know how she can, but she senses that Steve is feeling every bit as nervous as she is. Steve doesn't know what's going on – Sheppard had ordered her not to tell him what they were doing – but he knows there's something wrong; this human is weak, sick. But Steve is hungry, unbearably hungry; so much so it radiates from him palpably.

Slowly, hesitantly, he approaches the human. She'd never insult his wraith pride by saying it out loud, but she knows he's uncertain, afraid even. Knowing he has no other option, however, he suddenly lunges toward the man's chest with his feeding hand. No sooner has he started to feed than he stops.

"What is this?" he demands, spinning away from the man and pacing off to the far corner of his cell.

Rose watches Steve rather than her colleagues as they congratulate themselves in successfully preventing Steve from feeding. Even though he appears to be well, she still can't shake the bad feeling she has. The others all file out of the cell room, but Rose stubbornly remains, shrugging Sheppard's hand from her shoulder.

"Well, if you insist on babysitting him, at least stay away from the bars," Sheppard tells her. "There's no glass or force field here – and you don't taste bad!"

Rose makes a face behind Sheppard's back as he leaves, then turns towards the cell. Steve is standing with his back to her, hands on his hips. "How much longer can you last?" she asks him quietly.

"That is of no concern to you, human."

"How long?" she persists.

"As long as I have to," he answers. "It has been much longer for the Commander you still hold back on your base."

She can hear the fear in his voice; even he can't hide it. They both understand the fate that awaits him; to go slowly insane while starving to death.

"I wish there was something I could do," she says helplessly.

"Why would you want to help me?"

"I don't know. I just wish I could." She turns to leave the room.

"Wait."

She turns back and looks at the wraith. He drops his hands from his hips and turns to look at her. "If you want to help me, then stay."

Without hesitation, Rose walks back to where she was and sits down on the floor, cross-legged in front of him, only just barely out of arm's reach of the bars.

He walks across the cell and sits in front of her, right up against the bars, not because he wants to try to reach out and feed on her, but because he has a strangely compelling need to be as close to her as he can get.

Chapter 9

Sheppard hears the commotion from halfway down the hall. Perhaps he's finally given in and tried to feed on her, he thinks to himself; it would serve her right, the silly bitch.

But Rose leaps on Sheppard the second he barrels into the cell room. "Do something! He's dying!" she screams at him.

It takes a few seconds for Sheppard to orientate himself and it's not really until she runs back over to the bars that he realises that it's Steve that's in trouble, not Rose.

He's bent over double, clinging to the bars of the cell, obviously in pain… Sheppard shakes his head. Damn it, he's a wraith; it must be a ruse to get someone close enough to the bars to feed.

"No! Stay away from the bars!" Sheppard shouts to everyone in general before he notices that Rose has run right up to the bars and is actually reaching in through them toward Steve.

"We'll get help," Sheppard addresses both Rose and Steve and tries to pull her away, even though Steve had not made any move toward her and merely drops to his knees as he clings to the bars on his side of the cell. Rose impatiently shrugs Sheppard off, clinging to her side of the cell to stop him from pulling her away.

Suddenly, she reaches in through the bars and grasps Steve's right hand. Pulling it towards her, she presses the palm of his hand against her own chest. Her voice comes out in a rasping whisper as she tells him urgently, "Take it! Quickly! Heal yourself while you still can!"

In spite of his obvious pain, she manages to catch and hold eye contact with him; she can see his confusion, can almost hear him thinking, what is she doing, why is she sacrificing herself?

After mere seconds that feel like hours, Steve finally gives in to his basic nature. Not really knowing why he doesn't want to watch her die, he squeezes his eyes tight shut when he activates his feeding organ and starts to feed on her voraciously.

"Get him off her!" Sheppard bellows, but as Teyla lays a gentle hand on his arm, he gets a grip and actually watches what's happening in front of them. "What the…?" he says in utter disbelief. "What's wrong?" Sheppard directs his question to Steve, "Has the virus stopped you being able to feed on her too?"

Steve opens his eyes, a look of mild shock on his face as he speaks, "No I am feeding, Major," he tells them. "In fact her life force... it is like nothing I have ever felt before..." His expression is almost as awestruck as the expressions on the faces of all the humans watching the scene in stunned silence.

Finally, Sheppard finds his voice again. "What's going on? Why isn't she aging? Why aren't you killing her?"

Chapter 10

Sheppard walks into the infirmary back at base and does a double-take when he sees Steve sitting casually on one of the bunks, completely unfettered, with Rose standing by his side and Dr Beckett bustling back and forth between them and a gantry of medical equipment. The wraith is obviously relaxed enough to have even taken his coat off, revealing what looks like a plain black t-shirt with short sleeves that show the mottled green skin of his wiry arms.

"What the..?" Sheppard asks. "If he tries to escape or feed on anyone, I'm holding you personally responsible," he snarls at Rose, who merely gives him an arrogant look that would easily rival one of Steve's best.

"The lassie is his private vending machine, Major. He doesn't need to feed on anyone else," Dr Beckett butts in impatiently.

"Is it just her?" Sheppard asks, "Or has the Hoffan virus changed the way he feeds? And if it's just her, can she feed other wraith?"

"It's just her," Beckett says, looking flushed and flustered. Under Sheppard's disbelieving look, he adds, "He gave it back."

"I don't believe it!" Sheppard rolls his eyes, "You let him feed on you?"

"Well, I had to test the theory and the laddie gave back what he took when it didn't work the way it does with Rose."

"The la—? What if he hadn't stopped?"

"I gave him my word," Steve says calmly.

"Oh right!" Sheppard rolls his eyes again and turns, hands on hips, to face Steve, "Your word, because wraith are all so god-damned honourable, especially around humans!"

Steve merely gives Sheppard one of his superior grins, letting Rose's withering scowl do the rest.

"So have you tested whether she can feed other wraith?" Sheppard pushes, nodding his head over his shoulder in the general direction of the glass cage where Todd is still being held.

"No!" Steve snaps instantly, putting an arm across Rose in what even Sheppard could only interpret as a protective gesture. "With a well-fed wraith who is capable of stopping should it not work," Steve replies, "But not with him."

"He flatly refuses to let her try," Beckett adds.

"Unwilling to share your private snack bar, huh?" Sheppard goads. Steve hisses in contempt but does not remove his arm from Rose.

"I think Todd knows what's happening here, though," Rose offers. "Perhaps I should at least speak to him."

Chapter 11

In spite of Dr Beckett joining Rose's protests, Sheppard insists that Steve be returned, under heavy armed guard, to his glass cage. As the door panel slides shut, Steve glares sharply at him, saying, "If you let him feed on her I will find a way to kill you."

"Yeah, yeah," Sheppard says dismissively, "I know you don't want to give up your free food for life voucher, but we're not just going to hand her over to you and let you go, so get used to it."

Rose gives Sheppard a contemptuous look and he adds, "What? You didn't really think…?"

"No, Major," Rose sighs, "I didn't really think you would ever be capable of doing the morally right thing."

Sheppard gives her a sarcastically exaggerated wounded look, but she ignores him and turns to Todd's cage.

"Remember to ask him why you're developing some minor wraith traits," Dr Beckett urges her.

"She's what?" Sheppard demands.

"Em… well, we've noticed that…" Beckett stumbles, "In the tests that is… she's not just still healthy, she's…"

"I'm stronger and I heal faster and you obviously haven't noticed yet, but I don't need my specs anymore," Rose finishes for him. She ignores Sheppard and continues until she's right up against the wall of Todd's cage.

"Hello, Todd," she says gently as the big bedraggled wraith walks slowly toward her.

"Clever little human," he says.

She smiles wistfully. "Not so much," she says modestly. "You know what's happening, don't you? Can I feed you, too?"

Steve stiffens where he stands in his cell, but Rose goes on, "I'm the key you talked about, aren't I? Can I feed you the way I feed Steve?"

"Not my key," Todd says with a sad pout.

"I'm Steve's key? Only his; for him alone?"

One corner of Todd's mouth twitches and he says, "Lucky youngling."

Rose actually blushes and looks down at her own feet.

Teyla starts to put two and two together and she approaches Todd, asking him, "You said before, 'freely given, doesn't die'. What doesn't die if it's given freely?"

"It feeds on itself and grows."

"What does, Todd?"

"Energy… life force… it grows and feeds… feeds and grows…"

"Why does it only happen between them?" Teyla pushes gently, "What makes it do that?"

"Love," Todd says with a tilt of his head, as if he can't understand why they don't already see it.

Every single pair of eyes, except Rose's, turns to look at Steve. He immediately turns his back to them, shrugs and mumbles, barely audible, "What? You think wraith can't love?"

All eyes then turn back to Rose, who studiously ignores them.

Sheppard opens his mouth to speak but his words are never heard as the base intruder alert siren drowns them out.

Chapter 11

As the cell room rapidly empties of personnel, Rose grabs one of the guards. "The code!" she yells at him. He simply stares at her vacantly and she repeats, "The code to open their cells!"

Without thinking the soldier taps numbers into the two control panels before hurriedly turning to leave.

"That wasn't quite what I had in mind," Rose says. She bites her lip as the panel in Todd's cage slides aside and a feral tangle of green and white barrels out towards her.

Her breath is knocked from her in one violent whoosh as she's slammed to the ground with the full weight of Todd behind his arm pinning her to the floor.

Almost instantly a burning sensation starts around her heart and spreads outward through her ribcage, so intense she fears her bones might melt. Fleetingly she thinks, this is not what it was like before… I guess I can't feed any wraith but Steve… Suddenly she realises that this means she's dying and she starts to struggle, grasping Todd's wrist with both hands. She's vaguely aware of others running around the room in panic, blind to her plight, and she knows it's futile.

Without warning there's a wrenching sensation in her chest and the burning suddenly stops. Blinking, she looks up and sees Steve flying through the air then landing, Todd beneath him. She watches as they struggle briefly with each other before Steve grabs a passing human and shoves him in front of himself. Todd's feeding hand slams into the soldier and drains him within seconds. Steve hurls another into Todd's path then dashes across the room to help Rose up from the floor. He bundles her across the room, as far away from Todd as he can get her, then stands in front of her, ready to protect her.

Rose's eyes become wide as saucers when several wraith, accompanied by drones, come screeching into the cell room. Far from being relieved, Steve drops into a crouch in front of her, growling and snarling and clearly prepared to fight over her.

Suddenly the sound of a deep and compelling voice brings the chaos to a stand-still as it booms out firmly, "Stand down."

Rose looks around, trying to locate the source of the voice and has to look twice when she finds him. If she didn't recognise him as Todd, she would never have known him, so different does he look now, even while still in the drab, grey jumpsuit. This was what he looked like when they first captured him, she reminds herself; upright, proud, strong and charismatic.

He walks briskly across to her and, almost imperceptibly brushing Steve aside, he places his feeding hand gently but firmly on her chest. "My apologies, I was not myself," he tells her. "Please allow me to give back what I took."

Chapter 12

The chime on Steve's door takes his attention from the portable computer tablet he is showing to Rose. He calls out, "Enter," and the automatic voice recognition system opens the door.

Todd steps into Steve's quarters and, not for the first time, smiles at how at home Rose looks here. The two of them are sitting at his work station; clearly they had been huddled close together and Todd can see the slight flush that still lingers in Rose's cheeks.

After a few weeks of living on the hive she now has that look about her that most human females get when they've started mating regularly with a wraith; a sort of bloom of contentment that radiates from their very being, making them even more attractive.

Also not for the first time, Todd finds himself feeling vaguely envious of this young wraith.

"It seems the legends are right, after all," he tells them as he walks over to them and sits on the bench opposite them.

"These legends?" Rose asks, pointing to the tablet in Steve's hand.

"Indeed," Todd replies. "He has been teaching you?"

Rose smiles warmly. "Yes. There's so much to learn," she enthuses. "It says here that long ago, long before the war with Atlantis, humans sometimes bonded with wraith – they loved each other…?"

Todd smiles back and tells her, "Wraith are perfectly capable of love." He notices Steve's expression of mild embarrassment, albeit the young wraith accepts it more readily now that he's back on a hive than he could when he was held captive by the other humans.

"Although," Todd concedes, "in those ancient times it was more commonplace and acceptable than it is now." He tilts his head. "But times are ever changing… perhaps it will happen more often again, especially now."

"You mean us…?" Rose asks, joining Steve in looking embarrassed.

"The legend tells that some humans were able to feed the wraith they loved — though only that wraith — without dying," Todd continues. "In fact, not only did they come to no harm, but it made them stronger as well until, eventually, the human and wraith couple were so firmly bonded they literally could not live without each other."

He notices Steve surreptitiously reach for Rose's hand, grasping it in her lap and entwining his fingers around hers.

"I'm certain," Todd says, "Once word of what you two can do spreads, there will be a mass rush of wraith trying to find their human soul mates!" He laughs good-naturedly.

"But for now," he goes on, recomposing his features to a more serious expression, "I have come to tell you that I have regained some of my standing among our people and the queen of this hive has granted my request for us to be allowed to remain.

"All of us," he adds, looking at Rose. "She has given her permission for you to be Steve's personal worshipper, if you wish it, on condition that you continue to study the ancient manuscripts and try to decipher more about this legend, see if it can ever work on a large scale."

Rose spontaneously flings her arms around Steve and Steve can't help himself from grinning broadly and hugging her back. Standing up to take his leave Todd says, "I take it I can inform our Queen that you accept her terms." And with that, he turns and leaves, grinning happily to himself.

Epilogue

Steve and Rose lie entwined together in the dark, the air of deep contentment almost visible around them.

"Do you feel as good as I do when we do that?" Rose asks.

"Do what – mate or feed?" Steve teases.

"Both," she laughs. "It's getting to the stage where they both seem like the same thing to me." There's a short silence between them and she pushes, "Do you?"

"Yes, it feels good for me too." She can hear the smile in his voice, even though it's dark. She knows that this is still difficult for him and these unknown feelings, coupled with his trauma at the hands of the Atlantis humans, means his wraith pride has been much subdued since they made their home here on this hive. But she's also knows he's quick and adaptable and the beautiful, arrogant wraith she fell in love with will soon be back in all his strutting, peacock glory.

She fleetingly wonders if he loves her the way she loves him.

"Love?" Steve asks.

"Oh!" Rose flusters. "I'm sorry – I forget that you can sense my emotions." She looks up at him. "It's all right… you don't have to love me back. It won't stop me from loving you."

She feels his arms tighten around her as he says quietly, "Sometimes I don't really know what I feel... I'm not used to feeling this way at all, and certainly not about a human." He starts to comb the fingers of one hand through her hair and goes on, "I think I must love you; I don't think this thing works any other way."

"Well, that's good enough for me," Rose says happily.

"I am certainly fortunate. It appears that I have a personal mate who also happens to be my own tailor-made, never-ending food supply." Steve strokes his long, elegant fingers across her temple and tucks a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "I feel I don't deserve you."

Rose smiles and wraps an arm around his waist, rests her head on his chest, and tells him softly, "Oh, I think you can let me be the judge of that."

THE END


End file.
